It might be a slab of my mom’s leftover meatloaf between two fresh slices of white bread with extra ketchup.

Or it could be the ham salad made fresh daily at the meat market back home with its diced sweet pickles and tiny bits of Colby cheese on wheat toast.

And there is always my great grandmother’s Velveeta-packed grilled cheese, cooked in a puddle of butter.

Just who has the perfect sandwich? Caliente Cuban Sandwiches on East State Boulevard near Crescent Avenue has just joined the running.

The sandwiches are not common, and often aren’t up to expectations when they are available, but the Cuban at this tiny shop was one of the best I have ever eaten.

Caliente, the undertaking of the Cuban husband-and-wife team of Gus Rodriguez and Yalili Mesa, has a limited – but still growing – menu, not a lot of space for seating and not a lot of parking around back, and it is in a rather infamous location. I have seen a couple of pizza places, a barbecue joint and a catering business/deli come and go in that spot over the past decade, and I hope Caliente can break the trend.

After unsuccessfully searching for someone to make the proper Cuban bread for the sandwiches, the couple were forced to make the long loaves themselves. It is great that they do because that bread is the ingredient that makes this place so special. The bread is dense but still soft, chewy, crusty and delicious, regardless of what is slapped between it.

For the Cuban, Mesa slow-roasts pork in onions and garlic, then puts it – along with thin slices of ham, provolone, pickle slices, mayonnaise, yellow mustard, some of the onions and a drizzle of pork drippings from the pan – on the bread, which is buttered on both sides and toasted a bit in the plancha grill first.

Then the sandwich is placed back in the plancha and pressed until the fillings are warm, the cheese is melted and the exterior of the bread is toasted just right. Jalapeños can be added if you wish – and I wished.

The hearty pork, salty ham, zesty mustard, hot peppers and vinegary pickles marry perfectly inside the bread, and the melted cheese adds more texture than flavor, but all the ingredients mix to create something special.

The pan con lechon (pork with choice of toppings) and chicken breast sandwiches were good – as anything on that bread would be – but not nearly as brilliant as the Cuban.

The hot dog also was brilliant. Take the same bread and toppings, and replace the meat with a quarter-pound hot dog – and pay only $1.40 for it – and you will have a hard time finding fault with it. You would struggle to find a jumbo hot dog anywhere that inexpensive.

Think a $5 foot-long is a good deal? You could get this girthy hot dog sandwich, a cheese toastie, a hunk of garlic toast smeared with a zippy butter mix containing chunks of real garlic and flecks of parsley and a drink for a dime less.

I also loved the tuna melt, which had a super-simple mix of tuna and mayo with the cooked onions from the pork pan and some fresh dill chips as toppings. My only complaint was that the provolone was out of place here; American or cheddar would have been much better.

Provolone is also kind of boring on that cheese toastie, but it is only $2, so I can’t really be critical. I also would love to see the more traditional Swiss offered for the Cuban, but provolone is it for now.

According to Mesa and Rodriguez, a lot more is on the way, but there’s no word on the cheese yet. Caliente has received a beer and wine license, and a fryer is being installed soon so french fries – particularly to be served with the traditional Cuban pan-fired bistec steak – and plantains can be offered. A restroom is being installed along with a counter for an espresso machine to make Cuban coffee.

The sides and desserts already being offered are also winners.

Black bean soup is available on Wednesday and Friday, and it was a great little addition to the big sandwiches. The vegetarian soup had a murky, black broth and just a few onions and peppers blended in with the al dente beans. I had to add quite a bit of salt to mine, but they were great when mixed with the side of rice, which is available daily. The orange rice is cooked with carrots and onions, and some of those pan drippings are added to it, too. It was nice on its own, but the black beans and rice together were great.

Mesa also makes homemade tamales. They were pale and had meat mixed throughout instead of filling the middle like Mexican tamales, but the masa was moist and tasty, and it, too, became better when dipped in some of those pan drippings, which came in a cup on the side.

The chocolate chip cookies were OK, but the dessert to try was Mesa’s bread pudding, which, of course, is made with the unused Cuban bread. Cut in a big wedge and dotted with sweet raisins, the outside of the pudding is dark brown, sticky and kind of caramelized, but the bread maintains the same chewy goodness it has on the sandwich and is not overwrought with cinnamon.

I could find not fault with it, just like the sandwiches or, really, anything else there. The service is great, as the folks running the place are super nice and very cognizant of getting the food out fast.

I haven’t decided yet whether Caliente’s Cuban is the best sandwich, but I do know it is already one of Fort Wayne’s best sandwich places.

Restaurant: Caliente

Address: 1123 E. State Blvd.

Phone: 471-0700

Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday

Cuisine: Cuban

Handicapped accessible: No

Alcohol served: Beer and wine coming soon

Credit cards accepted: Yes

Kid-friendly: Yes

Menu: Cuban sandwich ($5.75; $3.49 half), pan con lechon ($4.89; $2.99), chicken breast sandwich ($4.99; $3.01) tuna melt ($3.50), garlic bread (50 cents), tamales ($1.40), bread pudding (75 cents), cookie (56 cents)

Note: Restaurants are categorized by price range: $ (less than $20 for three-course meal), $$ ($20-$29); $$$ ($30-$39), $$$$ ($40-$49), $$$$$ ($50 and up).